Geale dominates Mundine to win re-match

Daniel Geale successfully defended his IBF Middleweight title with a dominant points victory over Anthony Mundine at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Wednesday evening.

The Tasmanian (28-1, 15 KOs) rarely looked in danger of not avenging the only loss of his career in a bout that showed the disparity in performance and level of competition in which both men have fought since their first meeting in 2009.

After the bout, Mundine climbed on the ropes in traditional victory pose but he was fooling no-one.

The three Australian judges - Charlie Lucas (116-112), Ray Reed and Tony Marretta (both 117-111) - all scored the bout in Geale's favour.

Following the announcement, Mundine left the ring refusing to acknowledge the champion who outclassed him.

Pre-fight Mundine (44-5, 26 KOs) cupped his ears, inviting the boos from the majority in attendance at a near capacity crowd but the negative energy could not fuel his performance against the confident champion.

Geale dominated from the opening round with his left hook landing flush on Mundine, something that would become a trend through the fight.

After a quiet second round, the third was key, with Geale unloading on Mundine and forcing him onto the ropes.

He was seriously rocked with a right hand and Mundine responded with two head-butts that drew a warning from American referee Robert Byrd.

Mundine rallied to land a right uppercut at the end of the round but Geale immediately responded with a left of his own that had the former IBO middleweight champion looking unsteady once more.

In the seventh Mundine received a warning for using his elbow and was fortunate to not be deducted a point. Though he landed a few right hands there seemed little on his shots and Geale had no fear of his power.

Mundine showed a brief throwback to his younger days with flurries in the eighth but the round ended with a left to the body from Geale that seemed to wind the former rugby league star.

Mature performance

Geale turned the tables on Mundine, who loved to showboat in the days when he outclassed domestic opposition.

On this occasion, with a tired Mundine telegraphing his shots, the IBF title holder comfortably avoided them and even when not landing many he showed himself to be the dominant fighter.

Geale hurt Mundine twice with right hands in the 10th round, though Mundine did respond with shots of his own.

The penultimate round was again Geale's as he jolted Mundine back early with a short left and Mundine did well to stay on his feet before ending the round with his best punch of the fight - a left hook - which Geale took well, answering some of the questions about his chin that the Mundine camp made before the bout.

The final round saw Geale stalking Mundine around the ring and though the challenger landed some blows on the counter he took the more jarring shots, again from short lefts.

Next for Geale is likely to be a defence against the winner of Felix Sturm and countryman Sam Soliman, who fight in Germany at the weekend.

Afterwards big fights in America beckon against the other big names in the middleweight division such as Sergio Martinez, Gennardy Golovkin, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Saul Alvarez.

Geale did nothing on Wednesday night to suggest he could not live with these world-class operators.

As for Mundine, it is difficult to see where he can go from here. A belated re-match with Danny Green may be the only bout that could give him the stage and payday that he will feel is worth him continuing his career for.